"Nii-chan," he took note of the knocking that was on his door. And in his half-asleep daze, he muttered something before curling further into his blankets.

"Come onnnn," the soft padding of feet got to the edge of his bed and he groaned as someone yanked off his blankets

"Breakfast is ready and mom wants to see you off for work before she leaves for her job at the day care. " now awake, he sighed heavily before groggily sitting up and waving off his brother. Still smothering chuckles as he saw the multicolored hair of his brother. The memory of his mother's aneurism face when she saw it still made him laugh two weeks later.

"Ok, I'll be there, gimme five minutes."

"Come onnnn, Fumi nii-chan." He chuckled at the sound of his old nickname that his younger brother affectionately gave him when he was still too young to say his name. "Alright, alright, I get it, I'm up. "

"Well hurry up, the food is getting cold Nao-"

"-Fumi-san?" Naofumi opened his eyes as Raphtalia stood next to his bed, trying to waking him up.

"Ah, it's almost time to wake up Naofumi-san." Naofumi muttered a thanks before sitting up in the inn bed. And stared out the window as he thought about his dream. It had been a long time since he had dreamed of his family like that. It's also been a long time since he has even seen his family. Bitterness settled in his heart as he was reminded that he was snatched away from everyone he knew and loved before being forced to become a hero. He was determined to get home to his family, and he was going to try and get there as soon as possible

"Naofumi- san?" He looked up at the door as Raphtalia peeked her head into the room, a questioning look on her face. "I'll be right there, wake up Firo in the meantime." They both cringed as they heard Firo making a ruckus as she fell out of the bed in the room next door, screaming "I'm awake master!" Raphtalia sighed with her ears dropping down in slight annoyance before she left the room to let him get ready. He sighed heavily, after that dream, he really didn't feel like doing anything. But he knew that he would never be able to add another memory like that to his collection if he didn't. He had shit to do.

"Uh, master?" Firo eyed the tent nervously. Not really sure why they were at the slave's dealers' tent but didn't like it either way. Raphtalia kept her arm on Firo's shoulder reassuringly.

" we're just here to find some people from my village, that's all. " Naofumi ignored the talk behind him, continuing to walk inside the dark and ominous tent.

"Shield hero-sama ~" he still didn't like the way the slave dealer greeted him with such emotion, "how may I help you tonight?"

"I'm here to buy any slave that was taken from her village, "he pointed over his shoulder with his thumb, the earlier dream putting him in a foul mood.

"Go on, "he motioned for Raphtalia to follow the slave dealer with a jerk of his head, " go and get anyone you recognize." The two disappeared into the depths of the cages, leaving the hero and filorial in the front. Naofumi scrolled though his menu, letting Firo hide her body behind his and hold his mantle gently in her hands. She really didn't like that place.

"Master?" She tugged on his mantle, " why are they doing that?" He flicked his eyes to the side, where he could see a line of human slaves getting their slave crests removed.

"Those are slaves from Shieldfreeden, the slave trader trades demi- human slaves with them for exchange for human slaves, the queen is the one who put him up to it. "

"Ah, ok!" They both stood in silence for a few seconds before Firo tugged on his mantle again.

"Master," she dragged out the last syllable in an annoying tone," he looks like you master."

"Uh huh." He ignored her as he looked at the stats for his plant shield.

"Master look!" She was really pulling on his mantle now. He could feel her pulling it off of him," look at his hair! So many colors!"

"Oi, Firo!" he stepped away from her, trying to get her to let go so he could re-adjust it, "Stop pulling on-…" he froze as he looked at the human slaves, spotting the multicolored hair Firo was talking about," …it…" the slave was in the middle of getting his crest removed, and his back was facing him. But Naofumi could tell, there wasn't anything in that world to dye hair like that.

"Master…?" the slave stepped away with a grimace, rubbing his chest as he did so. Firo let his mantle flow out of her fingers as her master took a step towards the slave. Thoroughly confused by her master.

"Master, what's wrong?"

"…Akira?" his voice was just louder than a whisper, but it was loud enough for the slave. After all, he was the only one in that world who said his name correctly. The slave whipped around, facing Naofumi. And before they knew it, Naofumi was laying on his back, his little brother in his arms after Akira had practically tackled him in a hug.

"Ahh! Master!"

"Fumi nii-chan," he could feel his brothers tears against the skin of his neck," …I thought you were dead." Firo's cries had called the attention of the slave dealer and Raphtalia, making them run up to the front to see what was happening. Ignoring the others, Naofumi tightened his hold around his younger brother. His composure slightly breaking down after seeing his family after so long.

"I thought I was never going to see you again…how are mom and dad?" Akira sniffed.

"They're ok…we thought you died after you just went missing like that…but they're ok."

"Hey!" he heard the sound of Raphtalia unsheathing her sword," let go of Naofumi-sama!" Naofumi put himself together before looking up at Raphtalia, a small smile on his face.

"Its fine Raphtalia, we know each other." He waved her off before returning his hand to his brothers back. The other three looked extremely confused, making Naofumi pat his brothers back, a signal that he needs to get up.

"Akira, come on, get off so we can get out of here." His brother silently nodded his head and kept on hugging him for a few more seconds before pulling himself off of his older brother. He leaned back on his knees while wiping away the tears with the palms of his hands, while Naofumi sat up and patted his brothers head. Using a gentleness in his voice he would never use for anyone else.

"That's enough crying now Akira, I thought you were in high school already?"

"Shut up!" although he was happy to see his brother's normal hot headedness, he wasn't happy to see his brother pull back his arm for a punch.

"Wait don't!"

"You jerk!" Akira jumped up with a yelp of pain, cradling his hand after it contacted his older brothers' shoulder.

"Ow!" he shook his hand around, "What the hell are you made out of, steel?!" and much to the surprise of everyone who knew him in that world. The ever so serious and cynical Naofumi snorted before breaking down into laughter. He fell back down laughing with a very loud laugh. And while it was a foreign sound to everyone else, it just annoyed his younger brother. Akira started to playfully kick his brother, trying to get him to stop.

"Shut *kick* up*kick* you * kick* jerk!*kick*" Naofumi curled up into defensive ball while still laughing.

"Hahaha ok, ok, I get it already!" Akira stopped with a huff and Naofumi got to his feet still chuckling while wiping off his clothes. The other three were still standing there, extremely confused.

"Naofumi-sama?" Raphtalia stepped up, "Who is this?" with a big smile that they have never seen in a situation like this, he introduced them.

"This is my little brother Akira Iwatani."

Chapter 2

The two girls stared at their master as he interacted with his little brother the entire time. They had been with him for a while already, for a few months already, and they could probably tell you the amount of times their master smiled like that on one hand. And oddly enough, this was the day they were seeing the smile and their count kept on getting higher.

"Aki-kun, first thing first, we need to get you armor and some supplies, but come on, I know where to take you." And that was the first time their master ever talked about spending money with a smile on his face. Raphtalia and Firo didn't know what to feel about the new addition. They had been introduced to each other, Akira had given his brother an odd look when they told him they were slaves, but with the nod and wave of his hand, they seemed to come to an agreement. They could definitely see the family relation between the two. Naofumi had a bigger and slightly wider build compared to his younger brother. But other than the hair color, they were almost identical, same facial features, similar shades of green eyes, same messy hair.

"Oyaji," Naofumi walked into the shop with his brother right behind him," We're gonna pick out some armor really quick." Like the others, he was taken back by the look alike right next to him, and the smile on his face. And while Naofumi explained everything at a surprisingly fast pace and as he cracked jokes with his brother, the three of them talked.

"Hey, missy...is he feeling alright?" Naofumi grabbed his brother and started to blatantly started to mess up his hair, much to the annoyance of his brother.

"I'm- I'm not sure. He's been like this since we found his brother with the slave dealer." The older man rose up an eyebrow.

"His brother?" He watched the two males in the shop, the way Naofumi hovered over his brother and explained everything for him with a gentle smile on his face," yeah, I can see it... I haven't seen him smile like that in a long time. The last time I saw that smile was before he was framed." The three of them fell into small talk, each of them commenting that it was a little bit weird to see Naofumi so happy.

"Fumi nii-chan, what's your weapon?" He sighed heavily, he was hoping he could avoid that conversation for a little bit longer.

"You know how there are four heroes in this world?"

"Oh yeah! I heard the shield hero is the worst!" Ouch, even the others felt the pain from that statement. "Can you believe him?! To rape the princess within the first week of being here?!" Yep, and Naofumi could feel himself reverting to the personality developed after being sent here. His brothers' words only reminding him of the hatred in his heart towards the country.

"God, what a bas- "

"Uh, Akira- sama?" Akira stopped his passionate rant and looked over at Raphtalia, who was pointing at his older brother along with Firo and the shop owner. Turning to what they were pointing, he saw his brother pointing at the shield with tired and annoyed eyes.

"…Ah," Akira gave his brother a small awkward smile, ducking his head as he did so, "…you didn't ra- "he got a solid slap to the top of his head.

"Of course, I didn't! She framed me you idiot! You heard all of that shit about me but didn't hear how they cleared my name!?" And there was the Naofumi they knew. Akira rubbed the back of his head and ducked his head down.

"Sorry nii-chan…" He noticed the way his brother's mood changed. And the way his eyes looked. He was a little bit confused on his behavior (He did deserve that smack though). He has always remembered his older brother being slow to anger and easy to embarrass, not to mention, he didn't curse as much as he did now. Even with their talk through the town, he had a curse word in almost every other sentence. Akira eyed his brother as he talked with the shop owner. What had happened to him?

"Nii-san?" he sat up on his bed and looked out the window while rubbing his eyes. The position of the moon telling him that it was late and it was way too late for his brother to still be up, compounding medicine.

"Go back to sleep Aki-chan, ill go to sleep right now." Akira recognized that tone, he had heard it many times when he had asked his brother at two, three in the morning why he was still awake watching anime or reading light novels.

"You said that like three hours ago, leave it to tomorrow and go to sleep. "

"…Give me ten more minutes." Akira sighed heavily before getting out of the bed and standing behind his brother. And started to play with his brothers' hair. It was longer than he usually had it, and he usually didn't let Akira play with it at all, mostly because it distracted him and got him sleepy, but for some reason, he didn't say anything.

"You should cut your hair you know," he started to collect the strands, "Its long enough for me to make a pony tail on you." He didn't have a tie, so he held it all in one hand and pretended to judge his brother.

"And I gotta say, "he let go of his hair, ruffling it up with his hand as he spoke, "a pony tail definitely does not fit you." Naofumi yawned widely before waving his hand around, trying to get his brother to stop.

"Whatever, just go back to sleep."

"Nah." Akira kept on playing with his hair, trying his hand at a braid, noticing the way his brother head started to fall to the front for a second before coming back up. The way his hands started to poorly use the mortar and pestle before quickly fixing that. He started to quietly hum one of the lullabies Naofumi used to hum to him when he was having trouble fall asleep. Despite the fact that his brother has changed, that he was a little more cynical and ruder than he remembered, some things clearly didn't change.

"Nii-chan," he took away the pestle with one hand while shaking away his brother awake with the other, "Hurry up and go to sleep." Naofumi rubbed his eyes and yawned before reaching for the pestle, which Akira purposely kept out of his reach. They had a small stare off before Naofumi sighed.

"…fine." Akira let himself smile in victory before yawning. He leaned over and turned off the lantern before getting into his own bed to go to sleep.

"Goodnight jerk."

"g'night idiot." He smiled, there was his brother.

Chapter 3

Raphtalia walked out of her room yawning. It was about time to wake up, she had just finished getting dressed before going over to Naofumi's room to wake him up.

"Oh," she paused as she was going to open the door, "Good morning Raphtalia-san." Akira was to the right of her, holding a tray of odd-looking food, with a polite smile on his face. It was still weird so see a lookalike of her master, it was even weirder with that odd hair of his

"Ah, good morning Akira-sama…what is that?" she was staring at the tray, trying to figure out what she was looking at. Akira lit up and even lifted up the tray to emphasize it, "Oh, it's just miso soup with some rice and Tamagoyaki, it's a type of omelet." He clarified upon seeing her confused look and opened up the door to the room to let the two of them in.

"I woke up early and the inn master let me borrow the kitchen." He set down the tray and was speaking loudly, ignoring the fact that his brother was still asleep and was already pulling the blankets over his head, asking him to be quiet, "And I tried to recreate some food from our world, and so," he backed away from his brothers' bed and started to run, "Raaaaahhh! Wake up!" he threw himself on top of Naofumi, laughing at the sound his brother made and that he nearly overshot the bed.

"Akira!" Naofumi pushed off his brother with a scowl and let Akira laugh on the floor. He glared at his brother from the bed. Which would have been scarier, if it wasn't for the major bedhead and the trail of dried drool that was on his chin

"I'm going to deck you if you do that again." Akira laughed before slyly saying.

"Even if I have moms signature miso soup and tamagoyaki?" based on the way her master lit up, Raphtalia would have thought that someone just offered a ton of gold coins to their party.

"Really?" Naofumi eagerly push back his blankets before hesitantly taking a sip out of the small bowl, and lighting up further at the taste.

"It really does taste like moms' miso! oh hey Raphtalia, can you go with Akira and get the carriage ready? We still need to go and gather supplies."

"Yes Naofumi-sama." Raphtalia was kinda off put by the way she was ignored for a while, and then immediately dismissed once she was noticed. But either way, she listened to Naofumi and lead the way to the carriage. Soon, Raphtalia and Akira were walking side by side through the hallway.

"Um, Akira-san?"

"Yeah?" she tried to get her words together, the question she wanted to ask was a little bit weird.

"Um…has Naofumi-sama always been like that? So…light-hearted like that?" Akira frowned at her words.

"Yeah? Nii-san has always been like that? If anything, I'm the hot headed one out of the two of us. Nii-san has always been the one telling me to calm down and stuff…Is…Is he usually not like this?" she shook her head as she opened the door, leading them outside.

"No, ever since the princess betrayed him like and accused him, he's become very cynical and rude, but this is the first time I have ever seen him smile like that…" Akira knitted his eyebrows together. The brother he remembered was always happy and carefree, so much so, that their own parents gave up on him and instead focused on Akira into making him some sort of genius. It was easy to get him to laugh, honestly, you could just whisper 'pineapples' to him and at the very least, he would give you a chuckle at the randomness.

"Really? It's never been hard to make nii-san laugh. He laughs at the stupidest things."

"I do not laugh at the stupidest things." Naofumi came out with a scowl that lightened as he soon as he saw his brother. He had cleaned himself up, the trail of dried drool was gone and his hair was a little bit tamer now. But either way, Akira let out a loud laugh.

"Whatever, you always laugh at those stupid dad jokes. Even Dad didn't think they were funny. They're just bad jokes."

"Hey," Naofumi pointed at him with his other hand on his hip," Those jokes are funny and there is nothing you can do to change my mind."

"I bet you still laugh at that stupid "The past, present and future walked into a bar, it was tense" joke, don't you?" Naofumi crossed his arms with his usual scowl.

"Don't make that face, I know you're not trying to laugh." He kept on scowling, and Akira thought he was wrong until he heard his brother.

"…Damn it." And his face dropped the scowl as he started chuckling. Akira looked over at Raphtalia with a smirk. Practically oozing 'I told you so' energy. Naofumi kept the smile on his face as they left the town to gather supplies. And the entire time, the brothers kept on cracking jokes, cracking up for seemingly no reason at all. Occasionally making jokes that the girls would get and occasionally making jokes that they had to explain for the others to get.

As the sun started to set, Naofumi found it hard to keep a smile off of his face. To set his face into the usual scowl he had. Naofumi always found it hard to be a positive when his family was a world away, even harder when he found out that he couldn't sent back until he finished his job. But now that his brother was there, he finally had someone to joke around with, someone who would actually get his jokes. (He finally felt sane when someone agreed with him that it was weird to be attracted to a 10-year-old) He couldn't deny the fact that his heart felt a little lighter now that his brother was there.

Little did he know; his brother would end up teaching others how to tame him.

Chapter 4

"You know the easiest way to annoy my brother would be to tickle him." Naofumi heard that from the front of the carriage and scowled. Akira always tells his friends about that, and at one point, it was normal to be suddenly attacked by one of his friends who decided that it would be a good time to make him laugh.

"Really?!" oh he didn't like the way Firo said that, she said that with such enthusiasm.

"Yeah, but I don't think you could tickle him now, not with all of that armor he's wearing now." Firo let out a disappointed noise (He couldn't see, but Raphtalia was disappointed too) and his brother along with Raphtalia laughed at her reaction. Naofumi looked over his shoulder.

"Ha." Akira smiled at his response before climbing up to the front, looking at the surroundings as they walked by.

"Wow…this is pretty boring huh?" Naofumi chuckled at his reaction.

"Pretty much, it sucked at first, not having my cell phone and all, but you get used to it. Eventually."

"I mean, you kinda have to get used to it, its not like there much to do."

"Yeah that's a good point, like you said, there not much to do, the most you can do is sleep, sing or talk." Firo and Raphtalia were somewhat jealous of Akira as they watched the brothers interact with each other. Naofumi never had relaxed conversations like that with them. Akira suddenly had a devious smile on his face and Naofumi didn't like the feeling he got from it.

"…There's 100 bottles of beer on the wall- "he started off slowly. Naofumi's head whipped around when he heard the first verse.

"Akira no."

"-100 bottles of beer, take one down- "Naofumi was exasperated

"Akira, not this again."

"-pass it around, 99 bottles of beer on the wall. "Naofumi groaned loudly, memories of Akira doing this same exact thing when he and his family went on any type of road trip.

"Akira! I had enough of this when we were kids!"

"99 bottles of beer on the wall-" Naofumi was getting annoyed and lightly punched Akira to try and get him to stop. Only for him to start singing it louder.

"-TAKE ONE DOWN- "

"AKIRA!" by this time, Firo and Raphtalia just stared at the two as they messed around.

"OH MY GOD JUST SHUT UP!"

"-PASS IT-mph!" Naofumi grabbed him and strong armed him into a hold that both let Naofumi pin him down and cover his mouth.

"Ha!" he was slightly out of breath, "Now shut up, and stop singing that god forsaken song." Naofumi smirked when he felt something under his glove.

"I'm wearing gloves dork, and its been a while since I've washed them." He smiled at the sound of pure disgust and indignation that his brother made.

"Now, I'm going to le-HEY!" Akira had somehow managed slip his hands through the gap of his armor and started tickling his older brother.

"Hahaha! S-STOP IT!" Naofumi let go of his brother, giving Akira the chance to kick his brother off the carriage and onto the ground below, his high defense stat making it painless.

"Master!?"

"Naofumi-sama?!"

Naofumi landed on the ground on his back, his legs leaning against the carriage. Akira's head popped over the ledge and in a mocking voice he said.

""'I won't hesitate Bitch."" Naofumi cackled at that.

God, he missed vines.

Chapter 5

Naofumi and Akira sat in camp, Raphtalia and Firo are hunting for dinner, Naofumi was making medicine, and Akira…well, he was doing his own thing.

"Akira." *thunk*

"Yeah?" *Thunk*

"I'm only going to ask you one thing?" *Thunk*

"What's up?" *Thunk*

"Why?" *Thunk*

"I'm trying to get that satisfying smack." *thunk* Naofumi took a deep breath as he felt yet another object hit his head. Ever since Akira was young, he had this thing with throwing stuff at people's head, just to hear the sound it makes upon impact. And after Akira had showed him how satisfying it was to throw something at someone and get that smack, just how funny it was, Naofumi quickly understood why he did it. Which would be fine, if it wasn't him getting stuff thrown at. He took in a deep breath, trying to concentrate on making the medicine. Granted, Akira wasn't throwing it hard enough for it to hurt, but it still broke his concentration as extremely random objects were being thrown at him. So far, he has had clothes, shoes, sticks, even a wet rag that had wrapped around the back of his head and nearly made him burst a blood vessel.

*Thunk* "Damn, another miss."

"AKI- "*Smack* "FINALLY!"

"Master~ we're back!"

"Naofumi-sama? Raphtalia and Firo walked backed into the camp. Dragging in the animals that will be used for dinner right behind him. They immediately noticed the way the camp was, that there was one less person.

"Oh hey, you're back," Naofumi smiled at them, an occurrence that started to happen more often now that his younger brother was with them, "Here, I'll start preparing them for dinner." Raphtalia looked around while handing over the rabbits to the shield hero, trying to find Akira.

"Where Akira-san?" Naofumi used his thumb to point over his shoulder, where they could see Akira laying down in his bedroll, with a noticeable red mark for on his forehead. Naofumi turned around and tried his best to smother his smile at the memory of hearing that satisfying smack once he hit his target dead on.

"He'll be fine, I just got a little bit too rough when we were messing around." Raphtalia gave the camp a look over. Noticing the way one of their wooden bowls was discarded next to the sleeping human.

"What happened to Akira-san Naofumi-sama?" A devious smile appeared on his face.

"Nothing he didn't deserve."